I recently had the cutest little sprinkle thrown for my second child and I got a lot of jokes that I had literally nothing on my registry. Here’s the thing: this ain’t my first rodeo. When we registered for our first baby, I was so overwhelmed by the amount of STUFF that’s out there on the baby market. And in all actuality, when you come home from the hospital, you don’t need a ton of stuff right away. The baby does nothing but sleep, eat, poop, repeat.
So in preparing for baby #2 I thought, what are my absolute MUST HAVES that I need as SOON as the baby comes home from the hospital?
Sleep
First of all, you’re not going to get any sleep right away. That’s nothing revolutionary. But there are a few things I HAVE to have in order to start training the baby to sleep. One of my best friend’s husbands once said, “babies aren’t born knowing how to sleep. you have to train them.” No truer words. Gone are the days of old school advice of letting the baby sleep anywhere and making lots of noise. I get that I’m going to have a toddler and yes, the baby is going to have to load up and go. But for when we are home, there are a few essentials that make sleep a gift of beauty.
- Hatch sound machine – my kid is 2.5 and still uses one. We’ve had it since he was a baby. He taps the top to turn it on when it’s time for him to nap and go to sleep. He waits for it to turn green in the mornings when it’s okay for him to get out of bed. He insists that it stays on all night because it works as his night light. It has adjustable sound and light (all from your phone!) and you can program it to turn on and off at certain times. It’s a sound machine, nursing light, night light, guiding light and sleep maker all in one. I HAD to have one for my second baby. When nursing at night, I use the hatch rather than a lamp because the light isn’t as harsh. Plus it includes white noise which your baby is going to need a lot of right away in order to help them sleep. They heard a lot of white noise in the womb, they need to hear it out.
- Baby monitor – ours is nothing fancy. It can’t record video or read sound waves. I just need a monitor so I can see what’s going on in there. If I don’t end up keeping baby #2 in the room with me, (which is likely) this is a necessity. When we first came home from the hospital, everyone said, “oh the baby will just stay in your room in a bassinet so you can feed throughout the night.” That lasted about 2 weeks. I needed my personal space. Even if I didn’t have a crib, the bassinet would just go in a separate room. No big deal. I just need to be able to see with this monitor.
- Humidifier – this might not be a must for some moms but it’s an absolute for me. My second baby is due the dead of winter. The air is dry as a bone. I originally bought a cute little humidifier that matched Grady’s room (and it was cheap). Grady ended up getting sick and we needed a second for downstairs to help drain his nose. You could tell a HUGE difference in how they worked. I went straight for a nice humidifier for baby #2.
- Diaper pail – This was another must for me. I can’t deal with dirty diapers laying around in open wastebaskets. And I don’t care how small the baby is, all sh*t stinks. We don’t buy the bougie name brand refill bags. We buy these and they work just the same.
- Blackout Shades – You want that baby to sleep? Make the room as DARK as possible. With your new sound machine on. I tried taking everyone’s advice about just letting the baby sleep anywhere and guess what? He didn’t sleep! He was always awake! A mom friend said, “NO! Put him in the crib, room dark, sound machine on.” What a miraculous discovery! Once I started doing that, he would nap for hours! Blackout shades are a must have for me. Whether he is in my room or his own room, it will be pitch black. I bought four panels and put two up on each window. “You have to emulate the womb…” my mom friend told me. She was right.
Feeding
6. Bottles – When Grady first came home from the hospital, I didn’t think I needed any bottles because I was going to exclusively breastfeed. HA! He didn’t latch on the entire first night we got home. (More on that dramatic story HERE.) With baby #2, I PLAN on breastfeeding, but if it doesn’t work, I have a backup plan. I WILL NOT let my second child go all night without eating (when he clearly needs to). After I was done with breastfeeding Grady at five months, we settled on these bottles. They worked. Don’t know that they helped prevent any less gas like they said. But they worked. These will be ready and waiting just in case.
7. Bottle warmer – This is why you need one of these: if you are going to give the baby formula and need to warm it up, you can’t use the microwave. Why? Because the microwave only heats up certain sections of the milk (rather than all the way through) and it could end up burning the baby’s mouth. Same with pulling breastmilk from the fridge. We have this one and it seems to fit all bottles. I don’t think you need a certain name brand for certain bottles.
8. Breastmilk catcher – Breastmilk is liquid gold and I would always leak so bad while I was feeding. I plan on using this contraption to catch anything that comes out!
9. Muslin cloths – I didn’t know how bad I would need these until Grady got acid reflux. I would feed him and he would spit everything up. Not only did I use these to swaddle him in, I also used them to mop up the spit-up. I was running them through the wash constantly and they held up great.
Travel
10. Baby carrier – I didn’t use it much, but then I traveled, it made it so much easier to carry just a baby and a backpack. I liked this one because it was all cloth and not as bulky as the other ones. I know I’ll be using it WAY more now that I have a toddler.
11. Stroller system – This one is the only stroller you will need. I got a lot of flack because it’s so expensive, but it changes into a two seater and the carseat and bassinet can both pop in along with the toddler seat. The baby will stay in the bassinet in my room for a short while (until he gets evicted) so I don’t have to get one of those either because it’s included!
What I didn’t need right away (or even at all)
These are things that could have been an Amazon Prime purchase later after we figured out life:
- baby bath tub – you can’t give them a bath until their umbilical cord falls off. Even then, you can’t give them a bath every night or they’ll dry out. A lot of people just stick the baby in the sink for a bath. Or wipe them down with a sponge. Whatever works.
- wipe warmer – think about it. Your baby is used to a nice warm wipe. Then you travel somewhere and forget the warmer. Or you’re at the mall and the baby takes a dump and you have no way to warm the wipe. I had several people insist that I get a wipe warmer since we live where it’s winter. The day my baby was born, the nurse helping me quietly says, “the room in which the baby is wiped is heated.” She was awesome.
- special cleaning products – we used Dreft to wash the baby’s things for a hot second…but that detergent is super expensive. Regular hot soapy water cleaned bottles and nipples just fine. Grady never ended up having any allergies so we didn’t have to do anything special.
- baby food purees or blenders – I skipped the baby food and went straight for regular food. See my post on Baby Led Weaning here.
- highchair – you’ve got a ways to go before you start feeding solids. Skip it for now.
- swings, bouncy seats and walkers – Grady was born with torticollis and needed physical therapy for a few months. The therapist said these are the worst things you can put your kid in. Why? Because it prevents them from naturally learning how to move. She said the best thing is to just put them on the floor and figure out how to move themselves.
There is so much more I could add to the list. I think of all the things my grandmother and great grandmother went without, and they made do. This is just MY personal opinion of what I needed and didn’t need. Other moms might feel differently and need certain things right away. Everyone does things differently. If you’re a first time mom, maybe this will help get you started!
~Ashley